As the Caldor Fire in California raged through mountains just southwest of the Lake Tahoe Basin, firefighters tried to contain the wildfire hoping to take advantage of the cooler wind conditions. 

According to Capt. Stephen Horner, a Cal Fire spokesman for the Caldor Fire, a favourable change in the weather Saturday afternoon allowed crews to make headway and raise containment of the Caldor Fire to 19%, up from 12% the day before. So far, the fire has consumed 149,000 acres, or 233 square miles (603 square kilometres), according to inputs from the Associated Press.

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“It’s going to be a very pivotal day for us,” Horner said.

The wildfires have covered much of the area in toxic smoke and sending tourists packing at a time when summer vacations would be in full swing ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

The fire’s eastern border was approximately 7 or 8 miles (11 or 13 kilometres) from South Lake Tahoe, and it didn’t spread much overnight owing to “backfiring” operations, in which firefighters move ahead of the flames and burn off fuel so the fire doesn’t have anything to ignite, according to Horner.

“They did backfiring operations that were nothing short of amazing last night in that area,” he further added.

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Meanwhile, Cal Fire incident spokesman Henry Herrera said that wind gusts up to 35 mph were predicted early Saturday, but that they will taper down with slower, weaker winds expected for the rest of the weekend.

“We anticipate being able to make more progress over the weekend because of favorable wind conditions,” Herrera said, AP reported. However, the slower winds were only expected to last two days.

A Fire Weather Watch was issued for Monday and Tuesday that will lead to “elevated fire weather concerns” in higher elevations of the Northern Sierra, Cal Fire informed.

Since it began on August 14 in the Sierra Nevada, the Caldor fire has burned almost 600 buildings. The fire has been so difficult to put out that the estimated date for full containment has been moved out from early next week to September 8. Even that estimate, though, looks shaky.